The Other Side of The Line
by BlackRoseGirl666
Summary: Not every blader out there agrees with the rules of the BBA, and for those who don't there a whole secret society of like minded individuals who like to play it a little... rougher. RATED FOR: Blood, Violence and possible swearing: YAOI! KXR,MXH TXB
1. Opening The Rule Book

_Dear Bladers of the BBA, _

_Please read this short information sheet on, what I believe many of you feel is just myth, Underground Blading, for I fear that we will be forced to deal with it in the near future as the popularity of the sport has risen drastically over the years._

_So, as I believe that you have the right to know about what is going on in your community, I have sent out this small information sheet highlighting some of the basic facts and common questions about the sport._

_Also, in an effort to put this most definitely dangerous sport to rest, we urge you to report anyone you think is acting strangely too myself or one of your trainers for questioning, and please remember, this is only for the safety of your selves, your team-mates and the sport of professional Blading itself._

_Sincerely, Mr. Dickinson _

**What is Underground Blading?**

Underground Blading, in short, is a combination of physical hand-to-hand or weapon-to-weapon fighting combined with beyblade. There is no dish, the entire surrounding area is used for the battle, and the blade can be built in anyway shape or form imaginable.

**What Are the Rules? **

***** A panel of officials are first chosen before the matches begin, these officials decide when to call off the match and declare the winners.

***** In the Underground, there is always a winner. Ties do not exist because, typically, the matches go on until either one of the participants' calls forfeit or one is knocked out completely and can no longer fight.

***** No single style bladers allowed into a Rally, Rallies are only for the Blade Gangs, which are like harsher, larger versions of our Champion Teams. Rallies are a type of Underground Tournament, much like ours, but instead of using them to decided who moves on to the finals, the: "Undergrounders," as they've been nick named, use them to decide who gets what part of the world or "turf" to rule over.

***** Blade Gangs typically have around15-30 members though these numbers may vary depending on the reputation the gang has.

***** There is one leader to each gang (much like a captain on a Bey-team) as well as a centre circle of bladers that are trusted by the leader and thus are given more power. The others in the gang must listen to those above them.

***** No actual names are given during a Rally, just as it is very rare that anyone outside a centre circle of a gang know the actual name/face of their leader. This is because in the early days of the sport many of the leaders were assassinated during the daylight hours because their faces and names were o well know. This lead to the habit and unofficial rule of Masks and Cover Names (see _**Uniforms and Tattoos**_ for more information), both of which are used by all the important members of the Gang.

**Where Do These Things Happen? **

While the Underground Beyblade world is mobile, working much like our own BBA in the way that they have different events in different places, they, also like the BBA, do have certain countries in which the sport is practiced more often, here is a list of countries who are noted to have the highest number of "Undergrounders" as of last year:

1. Russia: Though not overly surprising considering the amount of criminal blading coming from this part of the world, it was still worrisome to the BBA Offices the lack of work that has been done to help prevent these dangerous games. Especially in places like the countries' capitol, Moscow, where one of our investigator actually came across an impromptu Rally during his stay in the city during last years World Championships.

2. Spain: This is, once again, was no surprise to us considering the amount of criminal blading coming from his part of the world. While not nearly as bad as Russia in the bigger cities, the smaller villages seemed to be filled with both rumours and talk of the Rallies as well as an amazing amount of betting going on concerning the sport.

3. America: America, much like Russia, also seems to have it's focus of Underground Blading in the bigger cities such as New York, where our investigators once again found themselves watching one of the battles in an alley.

**What is the Point?**

Unlike what most people believe, these Bey-Gangs do have a reason for practising their harsh sport on each other and other Gangs. That reason is the UWR, also know as: the Underground World Rally.

Seeing that not many out their know of this, here is the basic outline of the, as it is commonly referred to, UWR.

*****At the end of the World Championships is approximately when the Underground World Rally begins.

*****It is held in the in the country and territory of the Gang that won it the year before.

*****The Gang that hosts the UWR cannot compete in the UWR, they become the Officials for the UWR and do the deciding when it comes to the match's winners and then declaring the Gang who ultimately wins the entire Rally.

*****The leader of the hosting team is the announcer for the UWR and is thus under threat of assassination for the entire event. This makes the UWR a test for the leaders of the winning, hosting Gang to see how powerful they are.

*****If an assassination is successful, the one who killed the leader is to become the new leader of the hosting team. Those in the hosting team who have a new leader must swear on a blood oath to protect their new leader till there last dying breath.

*****There are to be no personal battles/turf battles during the UWR, they must wait until a new winning Gang has been crowned.

*The UWR is also an opportunity for the last years crowned winning team to flaunt their power. During and after battles there are often live bands playing and alcoholic drinks being served to members of the Underground League that show up but are not participating. As well as this, there are also number of high-ranking headhunters that show up at the UWR to scout new talent for both physical fighting competitions and the Upper Level Beyblading world.

*** **The bands/performers that play at the UWR are also under pressure of performing their best for a number of talent scouts also arrive to survey new and up-in-coming bands.

*****People such as talent scouts, head hunters and, on some occasions, politicians are often shown special seating up in higher seating boxes where they can see and hear everything without being seen through two way mirrors and sound equipment.

*****Also seated in the "mirror boxes" (as they are called in the Underground) are the Officials, though usually they have a different, more decorated box, as they are the members of the current crowned Gang.

***** The mirror boxes are impossible to break into due to bulletproof glass that encases the entire inside of the seating boxes.

*After a Gang wins a match (winning three out of five battles) both sides are taken out of the ring and treated for their injuries, after this the winner is announced and the losing team is taken out of the competition.

***** There are no second chances in the Underground.

*****To start off the UWR there is the Opening Games, which consists of a large opening party, where the Gangs participating are introduced through a battle royal in the centre of the hosting arena. This event has been known to be just as popular, if not more so, than the World Championships.

*****To be crowned winner is the greatest honour of the Underground Blading World.

**Uniforms and Tattoos.**

In the Underground World of Beyblade things are drastically more different, strange and dangerous then they are in the Upper Level of Beyblade. This, and the need to differentiate between Gangs without leaving themselves open for attack, is why uniforms, Masks and Cover Names were created and, even now, so carefully guarded.

For starters, a Cover Name is used in the stead of a person's birth name or, as known in the Underground, Day Name.

When a cover name is created, it has a few attributes to it that all the Gangs share:

***** The name will always be in the mother tongue of the Gang the member belongs to.

(I.e. someone from a Russian Gang would, no matter if his or her true name is English, be in Russian.)

*****Cover Names are not truly names. As in you won't find someone using the name "James" in the Underground, even if they're from an English or American team.

(I.e. you would probably come across a name that has some kind of tie to the person, as in if they were from a Spanish Gang and roses were their favourite flower or the plant somehow tied into their Gang name, they would be called Rosa or something to that extent.)

Masks are another thing used frequently in the Underground, both for those just watching and those participating. As well as this there are only two major points to a mask.

* Masks are uniquely original to the one Bey-Gang who uses them; no two Gangs will have the same mask.

* Those not part of a Gang but are still in the Underground Community also wear masks, though theirs are typically less extravagant then those used by the Gangs.

Where as with uniforms, only those in a Gang would wear their Gang specific uniform and it is much the same with tattoos.

**How to Spot the Signs of and Underground Blader. **

Underground Bladers are tricky, slippery people. They will not just come out and say it if you question them directly, or even indirectly, and if you do get a positive answer, you will most likely be very hard pressed to get and evidence or further details.

This said they are not perfect. There are ways to find out who among you is an Undergrounder.

The signs something that you should all easily be able to notice, the first one being:

1. How do they look? Do they have dark circles under their eyes, are they walking strange, as though favouring an injured limb or body part even though you know they haven't been training enough to cause that kind of injury?

Injury is one of the greatest concerns about the Underground and it should be easy to spot a bad injury on a teammate or friend or even an enemy, as well as this they'd also be sleeping less as the Underground is most active at night.

2. Are they reluctant to go swimming or do anything that might reveal their body?

While this could also just be a sign of insecurity, it could also be because under their clothes and gloves are the tattoos or scars of the Underground.

3. How's their attitude? Are they more stressed then usual even though they don't have a reason to be?

These are just the three basic signs that show up early on in the life of an Underground Blader, other signs include but are not limited to:

Insomnia, muscle soreness or headaches, lethargy, mood swings, soreness around the back, shoulders, chest or wrists from the tattoos most Undergrounders get early on.

_Thank you for reading, this was not meant to scare anyone this was simply sent out to you so that you can become aware that underground blading is growing in popularity and it is important to warn you that this sport is still incredibly dangerous and not something you should be getting involved with._

_Sincerely,_

_Mr. Dickinson_

* * *

Kai Smirked as he finished reading the sheet Mr. Dickinson on had sent out about Underground Blading, shaking his head at how naive the man sounded.

Mr. Dickinson had no idea just how popular and dangerous the matches and Rallies were, he had no clue that just over half of the BBA's lead teams were actually feared and respected members of the Underground World of Beyblade.

Hell, the Blitzkrieg Boys, under his leadership, had won three times in a row! And then after that their hosting of the UWR was without comparison. Kai himself had already deflected about 11 assassination attempts on his life; he had no idea who many Bryan, Spencer, Tala and Ian had deterred.

Aside from his own team he knew that at least three other teams participated openly in the Underworld Games as they were often referred to.

White Tiger X had been holding up China's end of things for years, only winning once though during the last year's championships after fighting far more viciously than he had seen them perform before. Kai theorized that either the entire gang was sick of being kicked out first match in or Ray's leadership had finally whipped their asses into shape.

F Dynasty tended to show up every once in a while; they had competed last year as one of the last two teams standing. Ray had taken down Julia after a brutal and amazing fifteen-minute match that had left the entire audience going absolutely crazy.

It had been hard to tell who would win with that one, both of them had been so blood soaked it was amazing they still didn't reek of the stuff.

He had, much to his surprise, also seen BEGA participating in the last year's games; they had been knocked out after a ten-minute match between Raul and Mystel, neither of the two had looked very good after the match had ended though.

Another big player in the Underground was Rick from the PPB All-Starz, the big guy controlled several small American gang and had been heading up and controlling America's part in the Underground for years. Unfortunately, Rick hadn't participated the year before, Judy had been watching the team too closely for him too be able to sneak away and compete, much to his annoyance.

And then last but not least, there was Johnny, then guy had yet to join up with a gang yet but for the last two years Kai had seen him hanging around watching the games so Kai figured it wouldn't be too much longer before he joined one and started participating.

Subconsciously, Kai began tracing the tattoo on his left wrist, twirling his wine glass in the other, his mind focused on other thing. It was the Emblem of the Underground, a black satanic pentagram with a black king's crown over top of it with a pair of French style fencing swords crossing behind the crown.

The crown represented power, the crossing swords represented the struggle it took to win, and the satanic pentagram represented the fact that power rarely every came without some taint or darkness with, no matter how 'light' you proclaimed to be.

Underneath the Underground Emblem were the roman numerals 1, 2 and 3. Those represented how many times he and his gang had won the Underground World Rally.

Also on his lower left side was the emblem for his gang: the Black Elements. The tattoo was a satanic pentagram with the different elemental symbols between spaces of each tip and then in the centre was a black sun, underneath the symbol written in Russian, was the name of their gang.

Kai shook his head smirking to himself, he could just imagine what the reaction of the Bladebreakers and Mr. Dickinson would be if they found out that he was one of the most feared and respected people in the Underground world.

He wonder what they would do if they found out that just about every Underground Balder he'd ever battled wound up dead or close to it after the battle, he wondered what they would do if they found out that when he battled in the professional arena he was only using a small fraction of his true power...

Kai smirked again, if the BBA thought they were going to be able to get a handle on Underground Blading then they were in for one hell of a surprise.

* * *

**I've had the idea for this story wrapped up in my head since I first watched Beyblade, and then after reading one hell of a lot of fanfiction for it, I realized that only one or two people ever had the idea to do a story along the same lines as this and even then the beginning was pretty short and the story didn't have an ending. So even though I'm swamped writing my other stories I gave into temptation and wrote the first chapter for this one! Anyway, hope you like ready it as much as I liked writing it and please review!**

**Review = Life for this story! If you like this story and want to see more of it review!**

**Bye!**

**BlackRoseGirl666**


	2. Displaying the Game Board

Ray crumpled up the letter he was holding from the BBA and tossed it into the fire place across the room with a rather vindictive smile curving his lips, his feline-esque fangs glinting in the low light of the Chinese sunset behind him.

Turning his attention away from the burning letter, the sixteen-year-old Bey-Gang Lord of China sucked in a deep breath and shut his striking amber eyes, and gently tired to ward away his encroaching headache.

Leaning back in the black leather swivel chair he had been seated in for the last hour and a half since his retune from Japan, Ray tried to sort out just what had brought him to this point.

When the bus had originally dropped him off at the White Tiger Village he had been happy to be home, happy to be back in his quiet little village and safe to put all his effort into training with his team-turned-Gang.

But now he was a combination of pissed off and pensive.

On one hand, he had this stupid letter from Mr. D that was now quietly turning into ash to worry about. (Heh, as if he didn't already have enough stress!) But also he had to put the final touches on the UWR, which was going to be difficult enough to do.

So how was he going to pull this off? Not to mention his pride was still smarting from that stupid letter.

How dare Mr. Dickinson try to make Underground Blading sound like some kind of criminal activity! They had worked so bloody hard in the Underground, especially because Bit-Beasts were too noticeable to be used openly in matches without someone finding out your identity.

The members and Gangs of the Underground spent _years _perfecting move after move and attack after attack! And that wasn't even including all those countless hours of training mentally, physically and emotionally that were put in as well!

Ray only realized he had been outwardly showing his anger when Lee's placating voice broke in from the open doorway.

"Calm down Ray, we'll go call up Kai and the other Black Elements and see what they have to say on this before we make any major decisions, okay man?" Lee said, his voice patient and smooth with an unmistakable backing of steel.

Ray knew that Lee knew that Ray would listen to the Black Elements, he always did, and so did everyone else.

It was an undisputed fact in the Underground that if _any_ Black Element, not just their leader or an Inner Circle member, gave you a tip, you listened.

This went doubly for their leader and Inner Circle members.

Ray took in a deep breath and held for a moment, Lee was right, the Black Elements had been around for way longer than their Gang, Crimson Claw, and Kai had dealt with this sort of thing before, Ray let a small smirk on his face.

As much as The Black Elements denied it, they were unanimously (or, at least as close as you could get to unanimously in the Underground) considered the leaders of the Underground. No one dared go up against them outside the UWR and it was just plain stupid to try and challenge them for their turf. Not to mention that their gang was also the biggest and strongest the Underground had seen for a _very _long while.

The Black Elements controlled Russia with an iron fist and with their ties to the mafia as well as the amount of blackmail dirt they had on the Russian Government, very few people of power tried to do anything to put a wrench in their plans. All of this came together to make Russia the safest place to host the UWR or anything else Underground related.

And if that wasn't enough they also controlled a good half of the Underground Bey-Gangs in Japan and had sunk their claws into the American and European side of things not too long ago.

Hell, the only place they hadn't touched was China and that was only because China was ruled by Crimson Claw and Ray, as the leader of Crimson Claw, always paid attention to what the older, stronger gang said/did.

Kai, the petite fifteen-year-old leader of the Black Elements and Ray's former teammate, was not very trusting, no one in the Black Elements was. But when you did prove trust worthy to them and when they did except you as someone worth defending, it was one of the sweetest places you could possibly be in the Underground.

The Black Elements were extremely loyal once you earned it, and through some twisted kind of fate Ray had managed to earn Kai's trust and would never ever dream of doing anything to lose the younger boy's favour.

Ever since he had gained the guardianship of the Black Elements things had gone way up for his Gang, they had went from a small almost extinct village Gang to the most powerful Gang in China in two years all because they had the help and backing of the Black Elements.

A small blush rose up on Ray's face, another reason Ray might be so willing to listen to Kai was the fact that he had a more that small crush on the other boy, but it wasn't like he was the only one!

It seemed as though anyone that laid eyes on the Black Element's leader found him or herself tripping over their own feet to do as the phoenix wished!

But really, it wasn't so hard to imagine why. Kai was everything you could ever want in an Underground leader, being elegant, diplomatic and loyal as well as deadly, confident and cunning as well as loyal, something that wasn't seen to often in the Underground.

And then there was his body, Ray thought semi-dreamily. No one could deny that Kai was just as hot as his Cover Name, Plamya (i.e. Flame in Russian), and those who did were just lying to themselves because they didn't want to admit it.

"Yo Ray, snap out of it! We still have a lot to do before the UWR in two weeks and we can't have you on planet Kai while the rest of us work, got it?" Lee asked winking.

Lee, also known as Zhao (Claw in Chinese) in the Underground, being second in command of the Gang and Ray's best friend knew about Ray's little obsession with the phoenix and never missed a chance to tease him about it.

Ray's head snapped up and let a mild glare out at his friend, Ray wasn't exactly sure how Lee had found out about his crush but he knew Lee would never let him forget about it.

* * *

Tala, also known as Ledyanoi (Icy in Russian), slammed the phone down harshly on the receiver, throwing every bit of his pissed off energy he had into it and hoping he blew the teen on the other line's hearing.

He wasn't sure how Kai could stand dealing with these little shits day in and day out, so Dickinson released one measly little letter telling people about Underground blading, so what? He had gotten the same bloody thing in his mailbox and you didn't see him have a snit fit about it!

"Calm down Tal, the last thing we need is you loosing it on top of everything else." Bryan, or Vetry (Winds in Russian) said, gently messaging his younger lover's shoulders.

Tala sighed and leaned back on the black leather sofa he had decided to camp out on once all the calls had started pouring in, allowing his boyfriend to continue working on his shoulders.

"Yeah, I know Bry, but it's just...so annoying." Tala said, pulling himself up out of his boyfriend's hands.

He knew that if he let Bryan keep that up he was going to wind up asleep by the end of the hour and that, no matter how tempting, was not something he could do right now.

"Um Bry..." Tala said rather hesitantly, damn what he would give to stay like this for another few hours or so. "You know I still have half a dozen people to get back to, and then I have to call Kai and see what he's doing and a bunch of other less then nice crap-"

"No you don't."

Both Bryan and Tala jumped and spun around to see Kai standing at the top of the swirling glass and stone staircase that lead down from the upper floor of the Hiwatari mansion down to the living room where they currently were, an amused smirk accenting his face.

"You have new orders Tala; you're to head off with Bryan for some well deserved rest whilst Spencer calls all the leaders of the different Gangs here for a mandatory meeting on the 13th understood?" Kai said still smirking as he crossed his arms and glided down the stairs.

Tala just stared for a minute before he finally snapped out of and let a smirk of his own show as he leaned his head on Bryan's shoulder, the older boy immediately responded by wrapping his arm around Tala's waist.

"And what are you going to be doing during this time?" The redhead asked, raising a brow at the shorter teen.

"I'm going to be getting the conference room ready and arranging several different first-class flights as well as arranging transportation, understood?" Tala sighed.

Kai had a hundred and one people willing to jump off a bridge for him yet he still insisted on handling trivial matters like booking flights and checking over annoying details like that himself!

It bugged Tala to no end.

"Kai...-"

"Tala, not now, now get your asses out of here before I demote you both!" Kai said only half joking; he had demoted people for less.

Bryan gave a mock solute and heaved Tala over his shoulder when he saw that the shorter boy was about to argue. "Yes, Sir!" he said smirking and headed for the door before Tala had a chance to struggle free.

* * *

Kai sighed as he finished the last of the arrangements, sure he could have gotten one of the others to do it, but he liked to be able to do something's on his own.

Or maybe it was because he was a perfectionist.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

Moving purposefully into his dark wood and forest green office, Kai quickly tapped twice on the third panel of the wall, roughly three minutes later the entire panel swung away to reveal a large set of dark oak doors with the Underground emblem carved into the centre of the doors.

There were no handles and no switches to open it with; the whole thing was voice activated so there was no way you could get in without Kai or another Black Element Inner Circle member saying the password.

The reason for this being voice activated and protected was not because he didn't trust the other Undergrounders that came through his office from day to day. It was more so that the BBA would never find out about the room the doors lead to or anything else to do with the Underground.

The room itself was large and circular and positioned in the centre of the mansion several floors underground with the only way to enter the room being from the secret door in Kai's office.

From there you walked down a small, plain cream walled and forest green carpeted hallway that slowly descended down until you reached a small stretch of hallway. After that were a pair of doors just like the ones in Kai's office except twice as big and they had handles as well as a pair of armed guards that stood over the doors at all times.

Once you passed the doors you would see a large oval shaped room with creamy-light gold walls and a black cathedral styled ceiling with carved oak trim and thick dark black drapes that decorated the walls with gold ropes that held them in place giving the allusion of windows.

The main piece of furniture in the room was a giant solid oak oval shaped table that ended in a straight line at either end of the table that nearly took up the entire space, placed around the table were enough chairs to seat roughly fifty people give or take two or four.

At the front of the table was a larger wing backed chair with two other nearly identical but smaller chairs on either side of it. That was where he, Bryan and Tala sat.

The backs of the chairs had the mark of the Black Elements burned into them while the other chairs had the marks of the other Gangs that used them burned into the backs, the table had the Underworld emblem burned on to it.

Up behind where Kai and the others sat was a two way mirror that gave a great view of the room for those sitting behind it in the control room while completely hiding them from the people trying to look in and identified the people working in the room.

The room housed several computers and control systems that you could use to activate the loaded guns that were neatly secured and hidden behind the curtains or simply locking or opening the main doors as well as accessing the large computer monitor stationed in the conference room to bring up a pictures or document that were needed as well as connecting the different feeds needed to hold a video conference with members of the Underground that simply couldn't come for fear of someone becoming suspicious or finding out their secret.

All in all the room was one of the safest and most dangerous places to be; of course, it was only truly dangerous once all the guests had arrived.

* * *

**Hope you all like this! Sorry it took so long but I've been feeling kind of sick lately but anyway I've got it up and out so now the only thing left to do is for you to review!**

**Please Review!**

**Bye!**

**BlackRoseGirl666**


	3. The Players

Rick planted another perfectly placed punch into the punching bag causing the thing to pull dangerously on the sliver chain that kept it secured to the ceiling; he had just been sent a personalized summons to a meeting of the Underground Blading World leaders concerning the letter the BBA had sent out...blah bu blah bu blah and as the leader of the gang the American Thorns it was his duty to...blah bu blah.

Rick sighed, oh how he hated all these rules, they made everything so long and boring, but hey whatcha gonna do? All the rules and traditions and crap had kept them safe from being discovered thus far so why stop now? And besides it did mean he would get a chance to hang out with Kai for a bit, even if it was time spent just trying to calm own a bunch of new gang leaders that where freaking out over a BBA letter.

Rick had always been fond of the younger boy, not like some people in the underground that ran around like complete idiots trying to gain the young phoenixes affection only to end up as major pains in the ass in Kai's opinion, what he felt for the phoenix was more of an older brotherly affection, such as anyone who messed with the phoenix would gain a brand new dent in the side of the head via Rick's fist, yay, that kind of affection.

Picking up the letter once more Rick quickly scanned it for anything he had missed before.

You could always tell when it was a letter from the Underground without even reading it, the letter it's self was always only one page long on thick cream coloured paper with a thick black border lining the edges, the words where always hand written in gold ink, only ever telling the reason for the meeting and the place and time the meeting was to be held as well as the gang that was hosting it, at the top right corner of the page done in gold ink was the symbol for his gang which was a circle wrapped in thorn covered vines with a blooming rose in the center of the circle and the initials AT over top of the rose done in a swirling cursive all done in black, like the one he had tattoo over his heart, but of course on the letter it was hand done in gold ink and then down in the bottom left corner was the symbol for the Black Elements also done in gold ink.

The envelope was addressed to Rick from his "Aunt Jhonna" who apparently lived somewhere in Africa when really it was from Kai in Russia, the fake address on the letter was only there to throw off any snoopy teammates, BBA officials or any form police that might come across the letter.

Of course not that that would help if anyone actually saw the letter which was why as soon as Rick was done reading it he quickly grabbed a lighter and lit the letter a flame, watching in curiosity as the letter glowed a strange blue before instantly turning to ash, Rick had always wondered how Kai and every one of his ancestors before him had managed to get the letters to burn like that but had never actually ever found the right time to ask, not that Kai would ever actually tell him, Rick though with a smirk, the younger teen would mostly just smirk at him and tell him to figure it out himself.

Shaking his head slightly, Rick picked up the envelope, turning it upside down and shaking it slightly until two first class tickets to Africa fell out the top as well as enough cash to buy two first class tickets to Russia once he arrived at the first destination.

This was of course another safety percussion that Underworld Bladers had to take when traveling for a meeting, convention or rally, every time they had to travel to do something to do with the underworld they had to do a lot of rerouting first, such as why Rick was now going to Africa first instead of straight to Russia because if he had gone straight to Russia or even to Japan it would have looked extremely strange to the BBA and thus might have made them suspicious which in light of recent events such as the letter they had sent out and the other warning they had been discreetly sending out, would defiantly not be a good thing.

But if he where say going on a trip to Africa to deal with a sudden family matter after receiving a letter from one of his Aunt saying that he was needed that wouldn't look so bad now would it? And knowing Kai he had already sent I letter to Mr. Dickenson form his "Aunt Jhonna" Say that "she" would be picking Rick up at the air port.

Still smirking Rick pulled out his cell phone and began making calls, unlike every other gang leader out there Rick was one of the few without a second in command, originally he had had one but...then there was an incident and his second in command had wound up dead and well, Rick couldn't find it in himself to replace him.

So instead of getting another second in command Rick simply didn't have one, he allowed only three people in his gang to know his name and face but all three where replaceable he made sure not to bond with anyone in his gang, the only two people Rick really found himself caring about now in days where Kai and surprisingly, one of Kai's smaller Japanese gang's leader, Carlos of the Blade Sharks.

Ya Rick knew the kid was rough around the edges and a little harsh from time to time but then again in the underworld, heh, that was pretty typical.

The kid was also loyal, it was clear as day he would fallow Kai to hell and back if the other boy would ask it, he was also clever and cunning and some pretty good skills as a blader and a leader, in truth, Rick would have loved to have someone like Carlos in the American Thorns and had even offered the younger teen a position in Rick's center circle, seeing as Carlos had already known Ricks name and face it wouldn't have been that big a deal for Rick but for the rest of the Underground it was almost unheard of for someone to offer up that much power after only watching the person for a month or two.

Not that it matter, after Rick had asked the teen Carlos had respectfully declined saying that he was happy working under Kai and the aforementioned phoenix needed him to keep an eye on things in Japan.

So now when ever Rick got summoned to one of these meeting things he often, with Kai's permission of course, in truth Kai seemed almost ecstatic that Rick had finally found someone else to hang around with other Kai himself, took Carlos with him so it was almost like he had a second in command but not really.

The whole point of a second command in the first place was in the case that if the leader got killed during a rally or turf fight the second in command would immediately take over, of course over the years more duties where plied on but in the beginning that was the basic idea, but of course there are always exceptions such as the Black Elements, up until Kai's reign the leader of the Black Elements would always name their eldest son the new leader if they where to die during a match or turf war sense the leaders had always been about thirty or so when they came into power, but in Kai's case he came to power at just barley fifteen and thanks to this he has now effectively broken the cycle of Hiwatari leaders by announcing that Tala Ivanov would be his seconded in command as well as that he was gay.

And of course there where many objections to this and one hell of a lot of people tried to talk him out of the decision but even that didn't last long, Kai was just too damn powerful for anyone to try and manipulate.

Around thirty minutes latter Rick sat on the bench by the bus top that was about four blocks from his New York apartment black duffel bag tucked under one arm his signature stereo tucked under his other arm, he had just finished leaving a message at Judy Tate's office explaining his "circumstances" and he had rung up Carlos, making sure the younger boy had gotten his ticket to Africa which it turned out that Ricks flight was a connecting flight through Japan meaning that unless it was just some freaky coincidence Kai had something to do with it, after making sure everything with Carlos was fine Rick had just sat down and relaxed.

There was nothing more he needed to do, Rick knew he and any other gangs that were summoned would be staying at the Hiwatari mansion and would be picked up by chauffeurs that worked exclusively for Kai.

All in all, all his worries where taken care of.

Heh, ya right.

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**Here's chapter three! And if you want chapter four before next year Review, ok? Because so far I've only gotten one review (Thank You FlamingIce94! You Rock!) and that won't keep this story gong!**

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**BlackRoseGirl666**


	4. Tiger Prints

Lee and Ray stood at the entrance of the Beijing airport waiting for Ray's Aunt and Uncle Ling to pick them up for a week of family bonding, not that it was really family bonding for Lee, it was just that Ray's Aunt and Uncle were very nice people and didn't have any children so when Ray had asked if he could bring a friend along when he came to visit they totally loved the idea.

Or at least that's what the BBA would think if they checked the two Bladers travel records, of course having signed letters from both the two's parents saying that the two boys had full consent to go on the trip also helped discourage any attempts the BBA might make to dig to deeply into the cover that had been set up for them.

Ray smirked slightly remembering one time when Kai was over loaded with getting the different gangs to Russia during his second year of wining the UWR and had mentioned how he'd always had the easiest time dealing with covering Ray and the other White Tigers tracks.

And as great as that was it was not just the parents of the White Tigers were supportive towards Underground Blading but the entire White Tiger village was extremely welcoming when it came to the entire system of Underground Blading. Believing that it was one of the few "true" tests a Blader could go through sense the entire village agreed that the World Championships were a little to safe to really be a test.

Knowing he had the full support of a entire village Kai had commented numerous times about how nice it was to have some place that he knew was completely safe in case something...unpleasant happened.

Ray shook his head sightly at the grim direction his thoughts were going, he didn't want to think about anything unpleasant, he just wanted to think about getting some time to maybe spend with Kai as well as asking some advice when it came to this years UWR and hell, maybe even inviting the other teen and his gang over to China for a week or two in an attempt to get them away from the stress of Russia for a while.

Ray smiled, he definitely liked that last idea, though really, he liked any idea that involved himself and Kai a lone together without interruption.

It was only about another ten or so minutes before Ray's "Aunt and Uncle's" car came around front, a bright crimson BYDE6. Ray grinned sure it was a typical kind of Chinese car, but the paint job? That was pure Kai, or rather, pure Crimson Claw.

The color of the car matched perfectly with his gangs uniforms Ray continued grinning it was just little things like that the made Kai such a great leader, the little details that made everyone respect him, Ray's smirk died a little, and made even more people want him.

Lee sighed as he looked over at Ray's dreamy face, it looked like it was up to him to pull his day dreaming "Leader" from the grips of planet Kai. "Yo! Ray! You'll never get to drool at the sight of the real Kai unless you somehow mange to drag yourself back to reality!" Yelled, simultaneously flicking his best friend up side the head and grinning cheekily at to dazed look that had appeared on his face, before grabbing him and dragging him off into the back seats of the car, Ray struggling to keep up with him.

Ray stared happily out the car window as the city scape of Beijing went by, slowly changing until they hit an entirely different part of the city, or more specifically, a smaller airport that only had a few small planes and had worked with Kai and the rest of the Underworld numerous times when it came to getting the Underground Bladers to where they needed to go.

Getting out of the car Ray and Lee grabbed their bags and headed into the front of the airport.

When Ray and Lee walked in they saw what one might expect to find in an office waiting room, the walls were a medium peach colour with light laminate hardwood floors with a large white fuzzy rug covering a quarter of the room where a small array of white leather two seat couches with a black coffee table in the middle sat, at the front of the room was a large receptionist desk made mostly out of wood with a glass top, a pretty young Chinese girl sat behind it on a black swivel chair dressed in a classy black skirt suit and a blue blouse.

The desk sat between a door labeled "boarding zone" on a gold plaque in swirly letters and a door labelled "Washroom" in the same script. To the side of the sitting area was a small refreshment table with an assorted group of different Chinese cookies and candies along with a pot of coffee, tea and a water pitcher.

Walking up the the receptionist Ray tapped lightly one the desk to get her attention and gave her his typical nice guy smile, which Mariah once said he should have patented.

Blushing, the women, who over his many uses of the small family run airport had learned was called Boa and was also was only a few short years older than his sixteen, turned her attention away from the keyboard she had been madly typing on and smiled brightly back at him. "Ah, I am glad to see...that you- your! trip here was, er, safe! Ray-San! Or, um, Sir?" Ray internally winced as he heard the girls _extremely _broken English and externally turned up his nice guy smile a few extra notches.

"_Yes, thank you Boa - San the trip here was fine, and I very much appreciate your try at learning English but you don't need to, I know Chinese perfectly __fine."_Ray spoke kindly in perfect Chinese, causing the girl to blush even deeper and slowly slide both his and Lee's tickets over to them_. " Thank you Ray- San I will remember that next time, your flight leaves in ten minutes, a black Infinity G37 with the licence plate of 2H9 I35F will pick you up in Moscow and deliver you to Hiwatari - Sama's mansion." _She said, offering him a appreciative smile, clearly now more at ease now that she was back to speaking her first language.

Still smiling Ray took the tickets and bowed his head to her before leaving for the door, Lee only two steps behind him the whole time.

Stepping onto the privet plane, which would have really be better categorized as a jet, Lee and Ray grabbed a couple of seats at the front of the plane a few seats away from each other, both wanting to catch a few hours of sleep before leaving the plane and getting into the car which would take them from the Hiwatari's personal landing strip and take them the hour and a half long dive to the Hiwatari's main mansion.

Once there Ray theorized they'd have be shown to their rooms by a Butler and have the rest of the night to get ready for the meeting the next day.

Smiling Ray settled himself against the back of his seat and began dreaming of Kai and his beautiful red eyes...

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**Hello! I am here to announce that I am not dead and am currently kicking myself for getting this bloody chapter out so late! I hope you all except my apologies and Review because you know how I love each an every review I get! (With the exception of flames! Those all suck and will be used to roast marshmallows with!) Also, please forgive any spelling gimps I may have made and continue on enjoying my story!**

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**BlackRoseGirl666**


	5. Esembeling the pieces

Kai walked to his seat at the head of the room with a kind of feline-like grace that few had tried to attain and even less had archived, his posture both commanding respect from all around him and still decidedly relaxed.

Flanking him were Tala and Bryan, both walking a precise two steps behind their leader and pausing respectfully beside their seats awaiting Kai to take his first, all the while scanning the group of already seated individuals before them with a glacier like glare that caused many a powerful person in the room to suppress a shudder.

Ray could only stare ahead of him in slight awe as Kai took his seat at the head of the room; not that anyone could tell it was Kai, though. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that Ray hadn't seen several of his comrades' faces as a show of trust he didn't believe he'd be able to identify _anyone_ in the room.

Ray smiled behind his own mask; he supposed that meant the idea of uniforms was working.

Glancing around the room neutrally from behind his mask Ray idling decided that he preferred the Crimson Claw uniform the best, though really, seeing as he helped design it, that wasn't much of a surprise.

Whereas many uniforms focused on physical protection and came bedecked with various forms of armour the Crimson Claw uniform was designed for smooth movement, aerodynamics and easy mobility, not protection, giving away the teams' favouring of the saying "they can't hit what they can't touch."

The uniform consisted of traditional fighting pants as well as a sleeveless kimono styled top, both were done in bright red material, with a fabric wrap around the waist in deeper red that was used for weapons storage. More red wrappings went from wrist to elbow and hid spring loaded knifes that would flip outward when triggered.

Black fingerless gloves covered their hands and soft fighting shoes covered their feet while numerous other weapons such as the pair of daggers Ray favoured were secured to one's person via more red wrappings.

Ray usually chose to wear his hair as he typically did for above ground balding but he changed the bindings from white to red and wore his bangs split so they fell by the sides of his mask.

And what a mask it was. The Crimson Claw mask was shaped like a cat and covered from the nose up. It was made of black stained wood and attached to the face via more red wrappings that were tied in a network of secure knots. The mask was decorated by tasteful feline-esque details such as three silver slashes on each cheek to represent whiskers, silver outlining around the eyes and small ears at the top of the mask.

The other uniforms in the room ranged from the more simple, disorganized style; like the American Thorn's uniform and mask, which consisted of baggy white denim jeans tucked into tight-laced brown combat boots and held up by often knife-leaden belts of multiple colours and themes. The top was a simple black hoody over some kind of tank top.

Masks were just tinted sunglasses altered to include straps that went all the way around the head along with a black bandana baring the Gang's insignia (an old English A surrounded by a wreath of thrones) stitched into it in red.

To the elegant; such as with the Gang of performers/bladers of Colour Storm.

That uniform was made up of tight grey pants and slim-fitting, long sleeved zipped up tops of grey that went to the throat with flat-footed white leather boots that went to the knees.

Multiple sheaths of God-only-knew-what were strapped to what seemed like every available part of the costume and Ray knew from experience that whatever was pulled out from those little pockets was in no way good for their enemies.

Arabian styled masks of multiple colours covered their faces from the eyes down with a line of golden embroidery holding the many layers of thin, colourful fabric together while the ends hung loose around their necks and faces.

All in all the epitome of poise and pretty-ness.

Ray sighed looked around bored-ly at the rest of the Gangs gathered in the room. He knew them all and had beaten some of their strongest bladers so his disinterest was understandable.

Glancing around the room Ray cocked his head a little and nudged Lee, said second-in-command, who had been dozing as they waited for the last stragglers to arrive so they could get this thing started, jerked awake and glared up at Ray.

Ray just pointed over to where he saw Kai, who must have left his seat at some point, standing by one of the doors speaking with a pair of teens in uniforms he'd never seen before.

The first teen, who seemed to be the leader as he was the one speaking to Kai, was tall and tanned with a strong, athletic build. His hair was hidden beneath the white hood of his jacket.

The girl beside him was far shorter than him, just barely reaching half way to his shoulders, with dark mocha skin and, like her male comrade, her hair was also hidden beneath the white hood of her jacket.

They were both dressed in the same white jackets that, on the shoulder, had what Ray guessed was their team symbol, a black feather surrounded by a simple black circle. The girl wore a white pleated skirt while the boy wore normal white fighting pants and they both wore white boots though the girl also wore white stockings and the boy had his pant legs tucked into his boots, they also wore white gloves on their hands an Ray couldn't see any weapons on them.

Not that that didn't make them a threat, of course.

After checking to see if Lee was copying down the symbol and any other hints as to who they were (that information would latter be added to their database) Ray once again let his attention drift.

And drift it did. Right back to where he'd started, at the seat of one Kai Hiwatari who was now once again seated there.

Wiping the dopey smile he felt forming off his hidden face Ray absently started trying to figure out just where the Black Elements uniforms fell on his scale of simple and elegant. It didn't take him more than a glance before he figured that it fell somewhere far off his scale and into the land of Badass:

With the exception of the intricate golden metal work done on the twelve black buttons used to do up the front of the front of the military inspired jacket that made up the top half of the uniform and the exquisite individual element-oriented gold detailing on the masks (which fit to the face like a glove and only covered from just above the nose down, a little like a more elegant, less clunky version of Hiro's Gin of the Gale mask) the entire uniform was black.

Everything from the tight black cargo pants that tucked into their polished, lace-up boots to their fingerless leather gloves to the thin fabric hoods that came up from the back of their always buttoned up military jackets. All black.

It was also fitted to each of them, clinging to them like a tasteful second skin, and was also detailed to fit their individual personalities, something which not very many Gangs did anymore because people were lost so often and there were so few costume and mask makers out there.

Actually, now that Ray thought about it, the only one he could think of off the top of his head was the male co-leader of Colour Storm, Ingenio, and Kevin from his own team and, as far as he knew, neither of the two did business with the Black Elements.

But whatever.

The sound of a throat being cleared brought everyone's attention back to the front of the room.

"Now, I believe that you all know the meaning for the meeting but, just in case someone missed something, lets just have a brief summery of why we're here." Drawled Kai's slightly bored voice, his words causing one or two non-BBA bladers to blush, as they had no clue why the meeting had been called.

A few seconds latter one of the screens behind Kai whizzed to life and displayed a mega sized image of the letter that had been sent to all the members of the BBA and with in a few minutes of the letter being presented the room filled with snorts of disgust and noises of outrage.

"They don't even have their facts right!" Ray didn't recognize the voice but from the English accent he guessed it was someone from one of the new English Gang's Kai had under his thumb.

"What an insult! Who this old coot think he is!" Ray believed that one another newer Gang, one that, like the English Gang he had heard earlier, didn't know how to behave in this situation.

Looking around Ray noted that really the only other Gangs, or Undergrounders in generally, really, that were treating this with any kind of self-respect were the American Thorns' leader, Rick Anderson I.e. Scratch, and his second in command who, from his uniform, seemed to actually be in the Black Elements Gang.

The two Colour Storm leaders, Julia and Raul Fernandez i.e. Ingenio and Fuerza, the new Gang who Ray didn't know anything about, himself and Lee as well as the Black Elements and in the back, was an English blader who simply went by Draco who was dressed in a simple dark purple silk ensemble who Ray recognized as Johnny McGregor. They were the only ones out of roughly seventy bladers acting with proper class.

Everyone else in the room seemed to be demonstrating exactly what not to do in this kind of situation.

They were letting their emotions get the rule them.

"Silence!" Kai said, or really, hissed. A harsh glare contorting his beautiful face as he looked down at the Gangs in the room in reprimand. Ray was personally glad for the masks if only because it helped hid his wince.

"I don't believe I asked you to lose yourself control upon reading the letter now did I?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in question causing the other Gangs in the room to sink back into their chairs with sheepish expressions on their faces. Sighing in exasperation Kai himself sunk back into his seat before speaking again.

"Now, as the majority of you surly noticed, more than half of the facts listed here are either lacking or completely wrong, this means that while they have been able to gather information on us they haven't been able to gather much and thus I highly doubt we have a leek in our system." There was a generally exhalation as the relief spread through the room. It was always bad when there was a traitor in their mists, it never ended well and usually did end with someone dead.

"Most likely they found a retired Undergrounder in need of quick cash and they believed whatever he or she said." Kai said, his voice now soft and reassuring, almost like the kind of voice an adult would use when soothing a small child, which, it seemed, was having the same affect on the majority of the previously angered group of bladers.

Seeing the nods that were now being exchanged between the Gangs of bladers below him Kai continued.

"Of course this does bring up the problem of why the BBA even sent out this letter in the first place, I myself believe it has something to do with the amount of attacks made on the BBA by both Voltaire Hiwatari and Boris Balkov in the past as well as the attacks made on the different lead BBA teams outside the dish. These attacks added together have given Mr. Dickinson reason to fear anything that may in the future become a threat, and with the Underground gaining so much popularity and power in the last few years he now believes he has reason to fear us even though we have shown him no hostility." Kai said, a mask of cool acceptance placed on his face when really he was feeling quite the opposite.

"And what are we planning to do about it?" That, surprisingly, came from Fuerza of the Colour Storm Gang, who was obviously trying to reign in her anger if only for the sake of appearances.

Ray sighed; Julia never could keep herself quiet until everyone was behind closed doors.

Turning his attention to the general direction of the girl Kai answered, a smirk clear in his voice.

"As of two days ago Mr. Dickinson himself called a meeting for today to discuss the Underground and their position in the world with a panel of some of the most powerful and trusted bladers and officials working for the BBA, all of which are currently located in Japan. I myself was even invited but chose to decline in order to host this meeting, so in my place I sent a couple of spies, both outfitted with micro-recorders about the same size of as an M&M straight from Hiwatari Labs as well earring safe buttons; if they are caught with the recorders all they have to do is snap the earring in half and we'll know to come get them, are there any further questions?"

No one voiced anything.

Kai nodded and spoke again. "All right then, if this is the last of it then I wish for you all to stay here in Moscow until my spies return tomorrow with the copy of Mr. Dickinson's meeting just to make sure that everything is covered. Until then you are released to do as you please both inside and outside of the mansion though I do as that you leave any locked doors you come across closed, if only so you don't set off any of the alarms," there was a soft chuckle of laughter throughout the room, as if anyone would try anything inside the HQ of the Black Elements, talk about stupid.

Kai's red eyes crinkled to show a smile behind his mask and he organized the papers in front of him, "For now though I suggest you all head back to your rooms, two of my Inner Circle, Okyean and Zemlya, will guide you back to your rooms."

And with that two more members of the Black Elements' Gang entered, both in uniforms and standing in front of the now open doors at the back of the room, ready and waiting to guide the group of bladers up to their rooms.

Turning to leave out of the room Ray found himself to be stopped by none other than Okyean, or rather Spencer, as he was know when he wasn't acting as part of the Black Elements, who was holding a small cream coloured envelope out towards him. Blinking lightly in surprise Ray nodded to the tall, black-hooded blonde and took the letter, quickly looking it over as he walked.

The envelope was about the size of his hand with the symbol for Crimson Claw done in black ink in the centre of it and a black wax seal of Kai's personal symbol, a Phoenix taking flight in the centre of a flaming circle, on the other side.

Ray frowned, of course he himself had a personal seal like every other leader in the Underground, his was the face of a tiger with the mouth open showing off long fangs done in a crimson wax seal, but that still didn't answer his question to why he received a letter form Kai sealed with his personal seal just after a meeting, unless…

Ray barely restrained a sigh, well; there went his planned nap. He'd bet his right arm that this was a summons to a Council meeting, bloody lovely as they were…

Sighing for real this time Ray followed Zemlya, or Ian, depending on who was asking, back to his part of his and Lee's conjoined room, slipping off his mask and running a hand through his hair Ray slit the seal and pulled the letter out, face settling in resignation once he finished reading.

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**Haha, cliffy! But I really hope you don't want to kill me for it! Anyway hope you liked this, I had fun both writing and researching it! Please Review and have a nice day!**

**Please Review! If you want this story to keep going and eventually have an ending then you need to Review!**

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**BlackRoseGirl666**

**Ps:**

**Okyean – Ocean (Russian)**

**Zemlya – Earth (Russian)**

**Ingenio – Wit (Spanish)**

**Fuerza – Strength (Spanish)**

**I think you can figure out why they're called that, and if not, then check out their character profiles and you will.**


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